It’s our first Christmas in Germany. We’d always planned to be here for the holidays this year – German Christmases are the stuff of dreams, mine included. We’d planned to be back in the US in the summer, and then to stay here and invite as many friends and family as would fit to visit us during the winter break. Instead, our summer flights to the US were postponed, followed by our winter break flights to the US, and being here over Christmas feels…well, it feels like all the other days, which is to say that we spend most of our time in our house, but at least now when we go to the grocery store in the dark at 4:30pm, people have their Christmas lights turned on. Sigh.

So what will the upcoming holidays be like? Well, for starters, Christmas shopping is finished, because all ‘non-essential stores’ are closed, leaving just groceries and pharmacies to do your shopping in. I’m sure Matt will love the can of olives and new tube of sunscreen I picked out for him! Luckily, many local stores have expanded their delivery services, and there’s always Amazon.de – plus, let’s be honest, if we’ve learned one thing this year it’s that we don’t need a lot of ‘stuff’, right? And also happily, panic-buying seems to be a thing of the past – when the latest tough lockdown was announced, it was thrilling to walk into the store and see shelves full of flour, sugar, and most reassuringly, the paper goods section flush with fluffy TP and plenty of paper towels.

One funky thing is that even the grocery stores that are still open will close midday on Thursday for Christmas Eve, and will not open again until Monday morning. Every store in Germany closed for 3.5 days! That’s 44 meals to plan for – I’m praying I don’t forget something we can’t live without. That also assumes I want to go shopping at 2pm on Christmas Eve with everyone else in the country, which I don’t, but seems like it will be a necessary thing, because our small fridge doesn’t hold a whole ton of stuff. Luckily, there are workarounds, like shelf-stable milk that we can buy ahead of time, and I think take-out will be open again on Sunday to save us with some sort of ethnic meal at home.

And finally, New Year’s Eve is normally a hugely outsized celebration for what people imagine is typical German behavior – apparently the Germans go completely nuts, setting off all kinds of fireworks throughout even the quietest of neighborhood streets. I’ve heard stories of unknowing ex-pats who woke up thinking they were under attack – can you imagine??? I would love to see what that’s like, but unfortunately even setting fireworks off this year is off, as are gatherings of any sort, even outside. Luckily, I happened to pick up a few packs of Pop-Its and Smoke Bombs and those little tanks at the drug store before everything shut down, so the night won’t be a complete loss, but I’m sad we’ll be missing this one as well.

Happily, despite all this somewhat blah stuff, we’re still having fun and making do with what we have…some days it’s playground games and revisiting old favorites like Matchbox cars and building blocks, other days it’s computer games and Zoom calls, occasionally we try to pump ourselves up for a stroll in a town we haven’t yet visited and see if we can grab a coffee and cocoa to go. Lots of baking and comfort food, too, along with a Sunshine Light and Vitamin D to offset the long nights. Focusing on gratitude is always a sure bet to color how we see things, and goodness knows we have plenty to be thankful for, plenty of silver linings, and plenty to look forward to, even if it is all a bit different from what we’d hoped. Realllly hoping though that the coming year brings a bit more calm, certainty, and freedom of movement!